Australian soprano Molly Ryan was recently named the winner of the MTO German Australian Opera Grant and Audience Prize. This year, Molly looks forward to relocating to Germany and joining the ensemble at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden for the 26/27 season.
Last year saw Molly perform the role of Contessa (Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro) in Vienna with the Prague Summer Nights Young Artist Music Festival and L’Opinion Publique (Offenbach’s Orphée aux enfers) with Sydney Conservatorium and NIDA. Additionally with the opera school, Molly created the roles, Mother ‘The Lullaby’ (Zhen) and ‘Menarche’ (O’Donoghue) in the world premiere opera, ‘MOTHER’, directed by Lindy Hume and conducted by Stephen Mould.
Molly has performed various operatic roles including, Theodora (Handel), Die Hexe (Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel), Piacere (Handel’s Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno), La Princesse (Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges), Belinda and Second Witch (Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas), Mauxalinda (Lampe’s The Dragon of Wantley), Susanna (Wolf-Ferarri’s Il Segretto di Susanna), Maguelonne (Viardot’s Cendrillon) and various soloists in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen. In 2023, Molly joined the ensemble at Musgrove Opera for a Sydney schools tour performance of Malcolm Fox’s Sid the Serpent, including a performance at the Sydney Opera House.
Molly has had much success in national competitions, including her recent win at the German Australian Opera Grant. This year, Molly placed third and was named most promising artist at the Nicholas Tarling Aria in New Zealand. In 2025, Molly was a finalist prize winner in the 101st Herald-Sun Aria Finals with the Melbourne Opera Orchestra and was a finalist and NSW Bursary winner in the Bettine McCaughan Scholarship. In the finals of the 2024 IFAC Handa Australian Singing Competition with the Opera Australia Orchestra, Molly received the Merenda Legacy Prize and the Ingrid Davidson Prize. In the finals of the 2024 Sydney Eisteddfod Opera Scholarship, previously known as the Sun Aria Competition, Molly was awarded second prize, performing with the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra. Other competition success includes receiving first prize of the 2023 Demant Dreikurs Song Scholarship Competition.
Molly has additionally received various academic awards and scholarships, including the Bud Brown Memorial Scholarship (2025) Greenberg Gurney Jensen Fund (2024), the PATIM Fund (2021-2024), the Helen Myers Scholarship (2020), the Florence Mary Verga-Smith Award (2019) and the Henderson Travellers Scholarship (2023, 2025) which afforded her the opportunity to perform with the Prague Summer Nights Festival and undertake an opera school program at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Molly’s concert soloist repertoire has included soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Mozart’s Krönungsmesse, Haydn’s Missa in Angustiis and Missa Cellensis, Vivaldi’s Magnificat, Fauré’s Requiem, Hasee’s Missa ultima, JS Bach’s Gloria in excelsis Deo BWV191 and Dyson’s Hierusalem. This year Molly joined Victoria Chorale in Melbourne as the soprano soloist for Haydn’s Creation and in August performed ‘Eliza’s Aria’ from Elena Kats-Chernin’s Wild Swan Suite with Simone Young AM at the Sydney Town Hall.
She has performed as a soloist with various orchestras and choirs, including the Opera Australia Orchestra, Willoughby Symphony Orchestra, North Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra, Sydney University Graduate Choir, Melbourne’s Art of Sound Orchestra, Hobart’s Allegri Ensemble, Illawarra Choral Society, Manly Warringah Choir and Orchestra, Radio Community Chest and St Paul’s College Choir where she worked as a soprano choral scholar.
She has performed in masterclasses with esteemed musicians including by Dr Graham Johnson OBE, Yvonne Kenny, Helena Dix, Jelena Noskova, Zoe Zeniodi, Francis Greep, David Miller AM and Lynne Dawson.
Molly holds a Master of Music Studies (Opera Performance) and Bachelor of Music (Performance) both with High Distinction from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where she studied with Maree Ryan AM.